His Last Laugh
by e-clair 06
Summary: "I shouldn't have been the last one to make him laugh." -Percy.


It had been just as hard as they all knew it would be, but at least the day was sunny and clear. Fred would have hated a cloudy and rainy funeral that made everyone somehow feel worse than they already did. The sun helped them remember happier and cheerier times in spite of the depth of their grief. After the service was over and the many mourners had begun to go their separate ways, George slipped away from the diminishing crowd. Without even thinking about his destination, he found himself upstairs in his old bedroom. Their old bedroom. The place where they had done so many crazy things, the place where they had planned out their life. It certainly never crossed their minds at the time that this might happen. It was still weird to be there alone.

To his surprise he found Percy sitting at Fred's still-cluttered desk. In the whirlwind that had been the last few days, none of the family had really had a chance to talk to their brother, though George could hardly recall him even being present as they made preparations and grieved together. Even though George wanted nothing more than to just try to sleep if only to forget his pain for a short while, he had a feeling that he needed to spend some time with his brother. He moved closer and the floorboard creaked. Percy turned around and saw him.

"All right, Percy?" George spoke first. It was strange how unnatural it was sometimes to make complete sentences. They had done everything-even speak-in tandem. Percy turned away again to stare out the window.

"Not really. You?"

"I wish." George replied. "I wonder how long it will hurt like this," he added quietly as an afterthought. His brother didn't reply. George sat down on his bed and tried again.

"Look Percy," he began. "I know you aren't all right. None of us are. But what's going on? I know you well enough to know that something else is bothering you." Percy looked at him again and thought for a minute. His reply was carefully constructed, like everything Percy had said for years.

"I just can't face any of you."

"You know we don't care about any of that," George said hastily. "Of course, you were a prat and you hurt us, but it doesn't matter anymore. You came back. And we need you, now more than ever." Percy's reply was almost as quick as his brother.

"It's not about that. At least, not really. Deep down I never doubted that you all would forgive and welcome me back if I ever decided to stop being an idiot. It's something else."

"Well? Go on."

"It shouldn't have been me." George made his best puzzled expression at this incoherent statement but Percy ignored it and went on. "I need to tell you what happened right before Fred died." He looked away from his brother and in a low tone recounted his unexpected return, his joke, and Fred's gleeful response, then paused for a moment. "I shouldn't have been the last one to make him laugh." A tear slid silently down Percy's cheek as he finished speaking.

This time it was George's turn to fall silent. He knew what he needed to say, but since it would need to be said calmly and seriously, he had to first process the wave of emotions brought on by Percy's story before he trusted himself to speak again. But after a minute he swallowed the tears and moved closer to his brother.

"Percy, listen to me." He succeeded with the seriousness. Percy looked back at him and didn't look away. "I'm glad it was you. It shouldn't have been anyone else. Oh, sure, I wish I could have been there in his last moments. I wish it had been one of our inside jokes that we were laughing about so that could be my last memory of him. But honestly. It needed to be you." Percy shook his head slightly. George continued. "What was it he said right before? You hadn't made a joke since…" Percy cut in.

"He didn't finish the sentence."

"Okay, well I can. You hadn't made a joke since you were ten. We remember, even if you don't." Percy hung his head and George took that to mean that he did remember. "Anyway. It was always you making jokes. You made the two of us laugh so much growing up. Bill and Charlie were funny too but they were older and tended to do their own thing most of the time, so you played with us and kept us wildly entertained with jokes and puns. I think we figured out pranking on our own, but I'm pretty sure you helped to refine our sense of fun in the first place. Then, you turned ten and decided that it was time to 'grow up' and being comical wasn't part of that. So you told us very seriously that you were done making jokes. It was so strange and we didn't believe you, but you were actually serious about it."

"Wow. I didn't remember it quite like that, but I guess I was pretty much an idiot." George laughed.

"Yeah, you were. And oh, in the years since we have laughed a lot at you…countless pranks and teasing-some of it you knew about, other stuff, well, let's just leave that file closed. But the point is, we always missed you being the one to make us laugh. I'm pretty sure Fred missed it the most, but whenever it would come up we'd just find something about you to laugh at and it made us forget." He fell silent again.

"I guess I'm not entirely sure what you're getting it."

"The fact that you came back and that the first thing you did was make a joke…you couldn't have made Fred any happier. If I'd been with him we'd have been laughing and joking and having a grand time, but one of the things he wanted most you gave to him. He died laughing at a joke you made after years of self-imposed seriousness, and he died knowing that you had really and truly come home and that somehow it was all going to be okay again. So he died happy-in a much different and much better way than if it hadn't happened as it did. I know it." Suddenly overcome, George hid his face in his hands and sobbed. Percy, tears falling once again down his cheeks, moved to sit beside his brother and pulled him into a hug. After a few minutes George spoke again, his voice a little bit stronger.

"Percy, I'm glad you're back. I missed my brother. I've been missing you for a long time. We missed you. I know it's never going to be the same without Fred, but you're home and at least that hole isn't empty anymore."

Once again Percy didn't reply, but both brothers seemed to know that nothing more needed to be said. They sat in silence in Fred and George's room and watched the sun dip below the hills, and then together they went back downstairs to join the rest of the family.


End file.
